New flight simulators help Hunter grow

James Dunaway (left) sits in the cockpit of an Apche Longbow flight simulator as instructor/operator Brad Coy confers with him. Both men are former pilots and now work for civilian companies helping to train and maintain active duty pilots' proficiency. Pilots can log hours of flight training in the simulators for a fraction of the price it would cost to actually fly the aircraft.

The 3rd Infantry Division Aviation Brigade recently acquired a second mobile Apache Longbow simulation system for an Apache battalion relocating this month to Hunter Army Airfield. Each system consists of an extendable trailer with two simulator cockpits and a support trailer. They can be transported by truck, rail, ship, and even aboard a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane.

Brad Coy abruptly presses the helicopter's cyclic against his left knee, sending his imaginary Apache into a roll.

Hydraulics tilt his pilot seat, and the computer-generated landscape in front of him spins upside down, then right side up again.

"That's not an authorized maneuver," says the retired Army Apache pilot turned civilian flight instructor, as the horizon levels off on the 180-degree screen.

Coy's mid-air roll proves the Apache Longbow AH-64D can handle the prohibited maneuver. And it demonstrates the value of modern flight simulators: Army pilots get to practice skills scenarios and fire weapons too impractical or expensive in the real world.

"We can train for just about every possible emergency procedure, from engine failure, fire and hydraulic failures," Coy said. "And if they crash, we just reset them."

The Army recently set up its second Apache Longbow flight simulator on Hunter Army Airfield for the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment. The unit's 24 Apaches and more than 300 soldiers will finish relocating here this month from Fort Bragg, N.C., under the Pentagon's base realignment plan.

The Apache simulators sit in a 53-foot camouflage trailer that houses both the pilot and co-pilot cockpits. A bank of computers lets instructors concoct a range of scenarios, from changing the landscape to creating enemy forces.

Designed by Boeing, the simulators are also mobile. They take less than five days to set up, and can be sent overseas so soldiers may continue training during deployments. The 80,000-pound trailers barely fit into a C-5, one of the military's largest cargo planes, said Jim Hilton, a veteran Army pilot and chief of flight simulations at Hunter.

"I have about an inch-and-a-half of clearance when we're off-loading one of these," Hilton said. "It's a very slow process."

This summer, Coy said he and his colleagues will receive a new simulation designed around a map of Iraq. Soldiers will have a realistic representation of the urban environments and battle scenarios they face there.

For example, Apache pilots must now master more aggressive maneuvers. They're now trained to pitch the helicopter up and down and roll left to right at greater angles than previously allowed.

"That started in Afghanistan when we began firing into caves," Coy said. "The crews would shoot rockets and they would roll into a hard bank to see where it impacted."

The simulators save money, too.

The $200 per-pilot-hour they cost to operate is much less than the $5,300 per-hour it costs to fly an Apache, Hilton said.

That doesn't include the money saved by not firing real Hellfire Missiles. A fully armed Apache carries more than $2 million in weaponry.

Hunter is also home to a Black Hawk flight simulator that will be used by a second battalion joining the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Campbell, Ky., this summer - the 4th Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment.

The airfield also has one of the Army's most cutting-edge simulators, the Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer. Pilots can practice combat scenarios that are projected inside their helmets.

The trainer, known as the AVCAT, simulates the Apache, Black Hawk, Chinook and Kiowa Warrior helicopters. And it allows several pilots to practice at the same time, on the same mission.

"We can fly formations in five helicopters, and commanders can practice controlling that," Hilton said. "The technology has really come a long way."